Precinct News Update as at 01.11.2009

Planning for the development of the Precinct has again taken up much of the time of your committee in the last three months. We congratulate the SCRC on giving the go ahead for the golf club to progress with its driving range and for Greenhills to proceed with the marking out of their proposed walking tracks. Clearly these indicate SCRC’s committment to progress and whilst there are always going to be administrative issues to contend with, the fact that these developments are taking place is encouraging. At the same time much appears to be happening within Council and we welcome the appointment of John (Fox) Rogers as Project Director. This appointment is pivotal to the development and will focus the local community groups and Council in all facets of the Precinct development. John will be well supported by Steve Gould and Paul Brockwell who have been with the project since Councillor Jenny McKay’s involvement and by newcomers Simon Crook (Finance), Neil Blamey (Project Manager) and other SCRC specialists who will be called in as and when required. In addition, SCRC have gone to open tender and will hopefully have appointed external town planners by the end of this month. This role will obviously provide in depth design drawings that will provide a blue print for development. Negotiations between SCRC and the CPR Group to conduct business planning strategies for each of the Precinct user groups as well as the Precinct as a whole are progressing well. The MDSRC committee has obviously been aware of the MCU application made by Barung and is disappointed in all aspects of the handling of this situation. Regrettably the MCU application for the relocation of Barung to the Precinct was never discussed by their representatives at the Maleny Precinct Advisory Group meetings. Had there been frank, open discussion and genuine co-operation, a solution would have been found. The parameters set out by Maleny Community Precinct Approved Concept Plan Development Intent Statement of November 2007, allocated 1.5 hectares from a potential 60 ha of rural zoned land on Porters Farm to Barung Landcare. Following on from the very successful workshop held by CPR, some interesting preliminary facts have come to light, for example; the population and areas that our sporting clubs service. We are expecting a business plan draft this week. By way of a follow up we have held meaningful meetings with the Showgrounds and Witta sports club committee members and will continue to meet with representatives of the Maleny arts and recreational communities to assist with understanding of the development needs for the Maleny community. If any of our arts and recreation members would like to contribute with ideas, or be part of the working group, please contact me. All of the information collected will be fed through to SCRC to assist them with understanding Maleny’s various social needs. Mike Norman MDSRC www.mdsarcinc.com